Discussion

Noodlecake never let's me down on their published games, so happy to drop $2.99 on this. Haven't had a chance to play before asking the question, but would love to hear about why you chose Premium over Fremium? Looking forward to playing the game tonight :).

@timithmcdoyle & @russfrushtick I'll try to answer your question about our monetization choice.
Bloodirony Games started as an extended game jam with a limited timebox of 6 months. Our goal was to release the final game in the beginning of July latest. Unfortunately, such a limited timebox like this does not give you much time for (monetization) experiments.
And even though the very basic concept of Shooting Stars! would allow us tons of cool ways to monetize the game with f2p mechanics, it takes time and some experience to do so. For us it was much more important to build a solid product that works perfectly as it is – and we can still extend it with different game mechanics at a later stage.

Yessssss. Also happy to spend $2.99.
1. What are the basic controls for moving around and shooting / using powerups? Any innovative control nuances?
2. Have you ever played Charles Barkley: Shut Up and Jam? If not...inspiration awaits!
3. Is Noodlecake the publisher? If so...awesome you are working with them -- great team and promoter of fantastic pixel games.
4. What methods of marketing / distribution have been effective in the past to drive users to a premium mobile title?

@scandylan Wer are happy you spend them, and hope you enjoy your investment.
ad 1) Controlls are very simple. Finger on screen means movement with auto shoot. you trigger ultimate attacks with a double tab or putting a second finger on screen
ad 4) Marketing for premium mobile games is a big question mark for us. But we try all we can. Mainly being loud and active on Facebook and Twitter. And being on every event we can attend (Amaze in Berlin, Radius in Vienna, GDCEurope and Gamescom in Köln/Cologne). What we will try to do is shoot for Youtube Videos in Stream, targeting shmup, rougelike and Internetcelebrity fans.
Distribution is handled by Noodlecake and the typical AppStore thing. With all that needs to be done there.

@scandylan Thanks for purchasing.
ad 3) Yeah, Noodlecake is the publisher of Shooting Stars! and we are super happy about the teamwork.
ad 2) Sorry, but I never heard about it. I will check it out as soon as I can.

@scandylan 3) after working for a while now with the guys from Noodlecake I'll have to say that they are the exact opposite of what other gamedevs say about publishers. We are very happy to work with them and without their support Shooting Stars! would have never been as cool as it is today!

1) Where did the initial idea come from?
2) Why did you decide to launch at 3 bucks rather than going freemium? (Not judging, just curious why certain devs make these choices)
3) What are some of your favorite SHUMPS of all time?

@russfrushtick 1) Well it all started without a lot of fuzz. We always wanted to make a shmup but it had to be unique to stand out against all the other shmups and mobile games in general. And it was pretty important to us that people can identify with what's happening without having to explain a lot. So why not take all the things we love/hate about our pop culture and internet and pack it into a game?